Activists fear Woolsey Fire may have released toxic materials at Santa Susana Field Lab

On the second day of the Woolsey Fire, crews set backfires. One of those backfires in Simi Valley attracted an audience.
Steve Byerly, Ventura County Star

Santa Susana Field Laboratory clean-up activists are concerned that hazardous materials may have been released when the Woolsey Fire burned a portion of the contaminated site last week. The site is pictured before the fire.(Photo11: STAR FILE PHOTO)

Santa Susana Field Laboratory cleanup activists fear that hazardous materials may have been released when the Woolsey Fire burned a portion of the contaminated site last week.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is overseeing the long-planned cleanup of the field lab, site of a 1959 partial nuclear meltdown when it was the Rocketdyne/Atomics International rocket engine test and nuclear facility, says it doesn't believe any contaminants that pose a risk to people were released. The site also experienced other chemical and radioactive contamination over the years.

The fire, which started Thursday afternoon near the 2,850-acre field lab in unincorporated hills just southeast of Simi Valley, burned a portion of the site later that day, the state agency said in a news release Friday.

"DTSC has been monitoring the status of the site closely," the agency said in an updated statement Monday. "Our staff were able to access the site Saturday morning and assess damage caused by the fire. We confirmed that the SSFL facilities that previously handled radioactive and hazardous materials were not affected by the fire."

"Over the weekend our multi-agency team took measurements of radiation and hazardous compounds, both on the site and in the surrounding community," the agency said. "The results from this initial round of testing showed no radiation levels above background levels, and no elevated levels of hazardous compounds other than those normally present after a wildfire."

The agency said it "is absolutely committed to ensuring the safety of all communities affected by the fires ... (and) our hearts go out to everyone affected by these fires. Out of an abundance of caution, DTSC is coordinating further testing and analysis of community soil and air samples over the next several days."

The agency said it "will provide updates as new information becomes available."

Cleanup activists have their doubts.

"We can't trust anything that DTSC says," one such activist, Melissa Bumstead, said in the activists' own news release. "DTSC repeatedly minimizes risk from SSFL and has broken every promise it ever made about the SSFL cleanup. The public has no confidence in this troubled agency."

“We know what substances are on the site and how hazardous they are," he said. "We’re talking about incredibly dangerous radionuclides and toxic chemicals ... and heavy metals."

"These toxic materials are in SSFL’s soil and vegetation, and when it burns and becomes airborne in smoke and ash, there is a real possibility of heightened exposure for area residents," he said.

A third activist, Marie Mason, of Simi Valley, and co-founder of the Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition, said in a second statement that the fire "may have resulted in even more toxic exposures. We’ve always worried about a fire at SSFL. SSFL could have and should have been cleaned up a long time ago.”

Activists want independent test of field lab

Bumstead said cleanup activists want independent experts, not the toxic substances control department, to determine if the fire caused any contaminants to be released at the field lab.

"We want an independent agency to do the radioactive and air monitoring near the site," said Bumstead, who lives in West Hills, which neighbors the site in Los Angeles County.

Bumstead said she's spoken with the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

"They said only the federal Environmental Protection Agency had the capacity to do the monitoring," she said.

An EPA spokesperson on Monday would only say that she believed the toxic substances control department remained the lead agency for monitoring the site.

Bumstead said State Sen. Henry Stern, D-Canoga Park, told people at a community meeting Sunday night that "he agreed that an independent agency needed to look into whether the fire caused hazardous materials to be released at the field lab."

The community meeting was held at Taft Charter High School in Woodland Hills, a section of Los Angeles not far from Simi Valley.

In an interview Tuesday, Stern said he thinks "the lack of information coming out of DTSC is troubling to people."

"They want some kind of authoritative assessment," he said following the daily media briefing by authorities on the fire, held at Conejo Creek South Park in Thousand Oaks. "I'm frustrated. I want more timely information getting out to the public."

Even so, Stern said thus far, "every indicator is that it has been safe."

"But we've been pushing on other agencies," he said. "Maybe it ends up being county public health or some other entity to come in and take an independent look at it."

Stern said it's his "understanding that's underway and we should have information forthcoming."

As of Tuesday morning, the Woolsey Fire had spread to 96,314 acres, killed two civilians and destroyed an estimated 435 structures, authorities said. It was 35 percent contained, with full containment expected Sunday, according to authorities.

Most of the Santa Susana site is now owned by aerospace giant Boeing and is divided into four areas with northern and southern buffer zones.

Boeing is responsible for cleaning up Area 3, its part of Area 1 and the Southern Buffer Zone.

The Department of Energy does not own any land at the site but is responsible for the cleanup of Area 4 and the Northern Buffer Zone.

NASA administers a smaller portion of the site and is responsible for remediating Area 2 and its part of Area 1.

It's not clear when the much-delayed cleanup will begin.

The toxic substances control department said in August it didn't know when it would release its "decision document," which will detail the agency's cleanup plan for the site.